


Stranded

by orphan_account



Series: The Library [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, M/M, Self-Hatred, minor injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 05:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9864515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Anonymous prompt: I'd love a shance angst to fluff piece if you're still taking writing promptsHindsight was always 20/20. Lance curses it as he tests his ankle, gently pressing his fingers against the swollen flesh. It throbs with every heartbeat and his boot feels too tight. He doesn’t dare take it off lest that make the swelling worse while he doesn’t have anything to treat it.Why didn’t he just stay in his lion? Why did trekking through an alien rainforest sound like a good idea? How did he not immediately realize how dangerous that was? Every time something like this happens, it’s so obvious it’s like looking back on a train wreck and wondering how he could let it go so wrong. His entire life is just one terrible idea after another.





	

The worst part is that this isn’t the first time this has happened. This isn’t the first time he’s gotten himself stranded in some backwards, uninhabited planet with nothing but a beat up lion and a wounded pride.

Lance curls up in the mouth of a shallow depression in a high cliff, more overhang than an actual cave.  Rain falls in sheets off of the rock above him and echoes through his hiding place in a deafening, neverending roar. This whole planet is covered in foliage; vines as thick as his leg, leaves as big as a california king bed. Flowers on flowers on flowers and stands of trees so dense they all tangle together, each trying to strangle their neighbors for a spot in the sun.

Blue is out there, lifeless, at the base of the next hill maybe a quarter mile out, but Lance can hardly see her through the rain and plant life it’s so thick. He really should have just stayed with her, but somehow he’d thought he’d be able to find some help here. Like pushing his way through a rainforest thicker than the Amazon while it was drizzling was in any way a good idea.

He’d made it half an hour before he’d walked right off a sudden drop hidden by a crop of massive flowers. Good news. He’d only fallen maybe five feet. Good news. He hadn’t broken his neck. Good news. He’d managed to make his way to this tiny shelter before the rain really picked up.

Bad news. He’d twisted his ankle pretty severely. So if the rainstorm and the forest wasn’t difficult enough to navigate, crippling himself made it basically impossible to get back to his lion even though he knew she couldn’t be far.

Hindsight was always 20/20. Lance curses it as he tests his ankle, gently pressing his fingers against the swollen flesh. It throbs with every heartbeat and his boot feels too tight. He doesn’t dare take it off lest that make the swelling worse while he doesn’t have anything to treat it.

Why didn’t he just stay in his lion? Why did trekking through an alien rainforest sound like a good idea? How did he not immediately realize how dangerous that was? Every time something like this happens, it’s so obvious it’s like looking back on a train wreck and wondering how he could let it go so wrong. His entire life is just one terrible idea after another.

The only thing he’s done right today is keep his helmet with him. It’s sitting on the rock next to him, the intercom turned up a loud as it will go to compensate for the roar of the storm. Lance squeezes his ankle and rocks back and forth as a deep, aching pain bleeds up his leg.

“Maybe one day you’ll finally just fuck up and actually die,” he growls to himself through his teeth. His legs fucking _hurts_ and he wonders if he’s really messed something up in there. “Would you learn then? Not to just run off and do stupid shit every day or your life?”

“Totally tweaking your leg and stranding yourself in the middle of nowhere not enough for you?” his tone turns mocking as he eases his leg straight, pulling in a shuddering gasp when he tries to test and flex his foot. The pain is cathartic, in a way, and he does it again, until pain zings up the back of his calf and he has to relax again. He shouldn’t test it like that. “You’ve got to make it hard for everyone else too? Make them drag your useless ass around? Fucking- You’re trying to fucking _save the universe here_ ,  jackass! What’s wrong with you?”

“Lance!” Lance flinches out of his thoughts when his helmet crackles. He sits up fully, forces himself to take a deep breath and calm down before he takes up the helmet and puts it on.

“Lance? Are you there?” Shiro’s voice sounds tinny and it echoes painfully in Lance’s helmet until he can turn it down a little. “Where are you?” He’s clearly worried. Lance wonders if he had heard his little outburst.

“Uhm,” Lance says, looking through the curtain of rain water at the sea of forest. “I don’t really know. If Blue is back up she should be giving you a signal. Otherwise, I can’t tell you much beside that it’s very rainy and there are lots of trees here.” Shiro goes quiet and Lance wonders if they’ve lost connection before he speaks up again.

“Okay, yeah, I see Blue’s signal. I’m headed over. You’re not there?” Shiro asks.

“No, I-I’m holed up at a cliff. At most a half mile out. I can almost see her from here,” he admits. He expects Shiro to scold him for that. After all, it’s much safer to just stay put when you’re lost. Hasn’t he learned that yet? “I’m sorry. I had thought that maybe I could find some help or a-a…I don’t know. Like a reference point or something.” Shiro sighs and Lance’s heart sinks, knowing the disappointment that must be on the black paladin’s face. “I’m sorry.”

“This isn’t a big deal, Lance,” Shiro says. In the distance, Lance can see the clouds cave in and break apart around Black’s bulk, its normally bright colors washed out through the rain. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything. I’m not going to grudge coming to get you, even if you wander off a little bit.” Lance slumps as the Black first hovers over Blue, then starts circling around. Shiro’s looking for the cliff Lance mentioned.

“Is your leg okay?” Shiro asks after nearly a minute of looking. His voice is softer now, tinged with concern. He’s veering close, closing in on Lance’s spot, but Lance completely forgets to speak up and tell him when he realizes Shiro’s heard everything he’d said. Lance sighs and tries to flex his foot again. A fresh wave of pain washes up his leg and Lance swallows any sound he wants to make for it.

“I just twisted it. Just enough that I don’t want to walk back to Blue myself,” Lance admits. He doesn’t want to tell him how it happened. That it’s just because he wasn’t looking where he was going.

“Are _you_ okay?” Black hovers then over the cliff and any response Lance wants to make is drowned out over the Lion’s thrusters easing its huge form to the ground, spraying Lance with rainwater. Lance is quiet while Black crouches and Shiro trots out and up to where Lance is doing his best to look pitiful, wounded and soaking wet. He takes his helmet off and Shiro does the same as he kneels down and cups Lance’s face in both his hands, warm on his cold and wet skin.

“Everyone makes mistakes, Lance,” Shiro says. He bumps their foreheads together and Lance is torn between relief that Shiro’s finally here to get him or guilty that he’d let Shiro overhear his breakdown. Their eyes meet and Shiro’s eyes swirl with emotion. Relief, worry, love. Lance pouts, and Shiro presses a firm kiss on his cheek.

“Come on. We’ll talk about it once we get home and you warm up a little,” Shiro says. He pulls one of Lance’s arms over his shoulder, the other wrapping firmly around his waist. They stand and, when Lance tries not to lean much of his weight on him, Shiro tugs them tight together. A silent plea to use him as a support.

**Author's Note:**

> Always taking requests. Also love feedback in general. I'm at quiddity25 on tumblr and @Quiddid on twitter.


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